The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-20
CANVAS BACK AND TERRAPIN.
Delicacies That Flourish Nowhere So Well
as In Baltimore.
Especial Correspondence.

autOcrat, DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who
called Baltimore the gastronomic capital of
the universe. 1t was he who suggested that
the lady be taken from the Battle monument
and diamond back terrapin put in her place,
and that a canvas back duck be stationed on
the Washington column. The other day
Editor Charles A. Dana, who is a. great an
epicure as he is a journalist, came over here
from New York with party of friends.
What has brought you here!' WAS asked
him
a canvas back duck. We came TO carve
the wings and the breast of a canvas back.
We adore your beautiful ladies, bow to your
artists, admire your history, your public
men, reverence your editors, but your canvas
back duck is beyond praise and comparison.
Next to your canvas back comes your Madeira.
/ have tasted it before, and it goes well with
the duck"
The fame of the canvas back is cosmOpoli-
tan, but nowhere can it be found cooked as
well as in Baltimore. This city, however, is
more the market of the canvas back than any
thing else. The great feeding ground of the
duck is on the flats in and around the mouth
of the Susquehanna river, and the central
town Of the duck shooters is Havre de Grace,
a lively little place, which the Jesuits settled
and which Lafayette named The ducks come
from Hudsons bay and the far northern lakes.
Atlantic coast, leaving few stragglers in
the Hudson and Delaware rivers, and arriving
in great fiocks at the head of the Chesapeake.
What especially attracts them is the luxurious
growth Of valisneria, juicy water cress,
which grows in submerged fields in all the
muddy flats, shallow bays and estuaries in
the neighborhood of the Susquehanna. This
the ducks tear up, and feed ravenously upon
the tender roots Nowhere else does the grass
have wild, hshy taste; on this they have
that succulence which defies competition
description. They arrive on the grounds
poor, but in a short time they become fat
There are several dozen kinds of ducks found III
the bay, but the canvas back is easily king of
them all. Its full grown weight is three
pounds. 1t is sOlidly put together and a
graceful flyer. The greatest flights take place
i'll the morning before sunrise, and that is the
time the gunner does his most effective work
Duck shooting is regulated by stringent laws,
to enforce which there are special police
maintained by the state. Over 81 900 are
paid annually by gunners for licenses, and
there are several hundred men regularly en-
gagged i'll the business of shooting. President
Cleveland gets his ducks direct from Havre
de Grace, and shipments are made every
week to Europe, where there is a growing
fondness for the princely bird. Amateur
way from $40 to $50 per canvas back for an
amateur To enjoy himself i'll this way, and
then he does not always get the ducks. This
year the ducks have been very scarce, and
prices have ranged from 81 to SO pair
During Christmas week the latter price could
not bring the supply up to the demand.
Most of the ducks are brought to Baltimore
and the game dealers here, after supplying the
active home market, ship them all over the
mon sight to professional hunters in the
business part of the city tying to dispose of
their stock, and they always succeed without
much trouble. Cooking a canvas back prop
erly is the very acme of gastronomic science
1t should be cooked about twenty minutes,
never under sixteen and never over thirty.
1t must be served very hot, and the blood
should flow freely when a knife is placed at
the breast. A canvas back overione, cold
or half cold, Is ruined. The red head is very
like the canvas back and very often is passed
off for it, but it is inferior in every way. The
best way to distinguish the two is by their
bills. The bill of the canvas back is blush
black; the red heads bill is OF a scarlet hue
Many thousands of dollars spent annually
by the rich spOrtsmen of Baltimore, Philadel-
phia and New York in maintaining ducking
shores President Cleveland's first out of
town visit after his entrance to the White
House was to one of these shores.
The diamond back terrapin is not hand
some creature; but what it lacks in beauty it
makes up in worth. 1t is packed full of gas
tronomic goodness. Terrapin this year
plentiful as the canvas back ducks are scarce
They feed on the same grass as the canvas
backs, and that accounts for the unapproach-
able excellence of their flesh. \ million
and half dollars worth of them
taken out Of the Chesapeake every
year, and they are sent all over this country
and to Europe. Maryland terrapin" is a
dish that figures on the menu card of every
great dinner or banquet. And yet the terra
pins popularity is very recent Old records
show that the slaves of this state used to re-
bel because they were given terrapin instead
Of pork. Forty years ago John NJ. Clayton
OF Delaware, who was secretary of state i'll
President Taylor's cabinet, bought them i'll
quantities, paying 81 for an cart load,
which he would have dumped into his cellar
Ike ton of coal, and which he used the
exigencies of the table required. n half cen
fury ago the best terrapin sold i'll the Annap-
oils market for 121S cents each. Thirty years
ago they sold in Baltimore for s. dozen Now
they worth from $50 to $50 a Dozen and
they go all over the world President Cleve-
land gets terrapin from Baltimore. So does
Mr.. McLane, United States minister to
France So do the rich English entertainers.
The season proper extends from about the
middle of November to the LIST OF April
About 500 men are engaged in raising and
catching them, and Coz, 900 terrapin annually
are made sacrifices to mans appetite Ter
rapin farming has become a considerable in
| dustry that will grow TO much larger pro-
| portions in time. The first farm started
| in Somerset county by the late United States
| Senator Dennis, who began the enterprise for
| his personal accommodation. There are sew
| eral farms i'll Calvert county. The largest
| one consists of salt water lake, many acres
in extent AMI large enough to accommodate
| thousands of terrapin. The hatcheres CON
sist Of boxes partly filled with sand, and are
! So arranged that when the females enter they
cannot get out until taken out The young
| terrapin are kept i'll the nursery for ten
| months a year, because the old masculine
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